


Living Symbols

by steampunkunicorn



Series: Tian and Garto [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Gets A Tattoo, Blame This On Discord, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Tatooine Slave Culture, Young Anakin Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26210098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steampunkunicorn/pseuds/steampunkunicorn
Summary: Anakin goes to the Lower Levels of Coruscant and gets a tattoo.
Series: Tian and Garto [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1762063
Comments: 17
Kudos: 155





	Living Symbols

**Author's Note:**

> I had always planned to write this, but the particular inspiration came from some heavy-duty worldbuilding of Tatooine Slave Culture on the New SW Canon Discord. Like most SW stuff on that server, there was a lot of angst. I wrote the beginning of this ficlet as a way to relieve the angst and I ended up finishing it. Enjoy!

On the lower levels of Coruscant, a sneaky Jedi Padawan skulked through the neighbourhood. He paid careful attention to his surroundings, glancing up, eyes flickering around in constant motion. Anakin kept his head down, careful not to attract attention. He finally arrived at his destination. He moved quickly as he entered the shop, not wanting to be stopped in his pursuit. 

The shop was a bit worse for wear, but it looked clean enough. (“When you are free, you must make sure to get your symbols from a clean needle, Anakin. You will die slowly and painfully if you don’t.” The visiting priest answered his many questions. It remained in his mind, as well as his neighbour who had become chain-struck.) He kept a tight grip on his credits all the same. 

"Are you lost?" A man with colourful tattooed designs on his face asked. Anakin immediately decided he was in the right place. Any person who would bare such colours in such open display would at least be sympathetic, provided he framed things right. 

"Nope. Just looking to do business." He answered, looking only vaguely interested. If he was invested, the man might just say no out of some cruelty. 

"And why would I be interested?" The tone gave nothing away, but the man’s eyes gleamed with curiosity. There was a reason he snuck out of the Temple to the Lower Levels. Down here, money talked. And Anakin, though only freed the year before, was fluent from his time with Watto. 

"I think we can come to an arrangement." Anakin pulled out a few credits. Not enough to get jumped for, but enough to catch the eye of the man. 

"Alright, kid. Piercing or tattoo?" Anakin told the man, who let out a small curse before digging through a drawer. After a moment, the man closed the drawer, handing Anakin a card. 

"This is your I.d. I am legally required to ask for it. If I don't, I get shut down. Now, do you have an I.d.?" Anakin hands the man the card with an image of a togruta woman on it. "All right. I can now give you a tattoo. What do you want done and where?" 

Anakin didn’t care about the legality (slavery was legal in the Outer Rim, after all. And the Jedi were concerned with maintaining order, to the point of sometimes allowing cruel laws until a time when they could be taken care of. He could hear Obi-Wan's lilting tones explaining the necessity of cruelty.) But, he had been preparing his design since he won the Boonta Eve Classic. He handed the flimsi with his design to the man. To anyone on Coruscant, it would no doubt look like some abstract art. But, to any slave, his declaration of freedom would be read. It would be read from the curve of the suns to the interlock of the points. 

Placement was key. He couldn’t get it on his face, as that would give everything away. But certain placements meant specific things. So, he had decided to get it somewhere that could be easily shown but hidden under his clothing. He settled for his calf. The placement would not only show he was legally freed, as well as traveled outside of a slave transport (okay, so he’d only been to Coruscant and Naboo so far, but that was still enough to count.) 

He sat through the pain without so much as a flinch. He didn’t scream or even clench his teeth. He listened to all the care instructions to do as it healed up. He paid the man (with a reasonable tip for his discretion) and left. 

As he sat down on the first of several transports, he looked down at his bandaged leg, smiling. He was truly free. 

(His smile remained, even as he was lectured on falling asleep in class the next day.) 

**Author's Note:**

> The main bit from the Discord Server is Anakin arriving at the tattoo parlour and doing the I.d. bit.
> 
> Not that much worldbuilding here, given the setting and interaction. But, I will make mention of what I did include.
> 
> Chain-struck refers to a slave that freed themselves by removing their detonator (they struck apart their own chains)
> 
> The priest referred to is a former slave that works on the Freedom Path (underground railroad) It is seen as a higher calling for slaves and those that work as such are regarded for their knowledge. As such, when a slave sees one, questions are encouraged. I do plan to go into further detail in another story.
> 
> Some of the worldbuilding we discussed on the Discord Server included the importance of tattoos and bright colours to freed slaves, as well as placement. I further expanded on this by including the importance of specific areas having different meanings. The face is probably the most favoured, since it takes a lot to hide it (we had the idea that Anakin loves Fives's tattoo) but, if placed elsewhere, such as the lower end of a limb, it could be shown in light clothing and displayed with a simple motion.
> 
> The bit about Obi-Wan's explanation is due to it being early days still, and Anakin is still very much focused on freeing the slaves. Obi-Wan was trying to help Anakin focus on the big picture (after all, there's the instability of an uprising, the power vacuum being ripe for something even worse to take over and re-enslave them, and other such factors to consider.) Anakin is, also, a bit of an unreliable narrator.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the read!


End file.
